I visited a public library in Huntington Beach city at two pm on Saturday; it is a branch library. I am not sure what the specialty of the library is; however, it has first floor reserved for children section with book, computer, reading tables and chairs, toys and games. During my time here, I saw a patron asking the library for where she can find books regarding real estate. The librarian asked the patron if she was looking for book on how to buy a house or book for entering into real estate profession; the patron said that she was interested in books for real estate exam in the particular. The librarian found couple books so she wrote the location numbers onto a piece of paper, gave it to the patron and say that the books were at the basement. On the second floor, which is the main floor, as I entered the library, to my right was a desk area with two librarians helping patrons make library card by having patrons to fill out application and take picture. Further in, to the left, was an information desk where librarians can look up to see where material is located. To the left, there was a desk area with two other librarians checking the books out for patrons by scanning in the patron’s library card and then scanning in the books. The librarians at this place did not use stamp nor printout receipt but instead, just verbally told the patrons that the books would be due three weeks from today; the library is probably trying to cut on cost by saving on ink and paper. Further in to the right was a reading area with five shelves full of magazines. There were about seven tables with chairs for patrons who wished to seat down and read. I did not see any Encyclopedia books at all.
For library instruction, I saw a sign saying no food or drink; however, as I walked to first floor, I saw a cafeteria. Thus, the sign did not mean no food or drink everywhere in the library; it actually meant no food or drink only at those areas with the poster signs. I did not see any workshops posted on the calendar. In term of reference collection, the library had mainly books; it also has a program in that patrons can rent out DVD with the cost of one dollar for one DVD and patrons can keep that DVD for three days. However, children can rent out children DVD for free. I believed that this library specialty is child development because it had the whole first floor full of children books and other equipments for children activities. In fact, in this first floor, at the time of my visit, there was a children workshop with a lady working on children face and hand painting. The first floor also had a reference area, where children could themselves go and ask the librarian for certain material or reserve time to play on computers. One of the parents was telling me that this library used to have children reading program on Saturday from eleven am to one pm. But the program was put on hold since the library was going through a budget skimming. So, over all, I believe that this library specialty is literacy and theater since there was a big theater inside the library. However, I still had not yet to see it. I walked around looking for it but unable to located. I tried to access the library online from my home, but unable to access any material since it was asking for my library card which I did not have at a moment.
There are a couple of things that I do not like about this library: 1) the signs about material numbers were somewhat unclear. For an example, I was looking for books on exterior house painting. After the librarian gave me the material number and said that it was down stair, I did not know that she meant the material was in the basement. I spent fifteen minutes on the first floor before going to the basement. The library should have a sign right next to the stair, pointing down for certain material number, that way, patrons would understand and keep moving to the next floor. 2) this library was an exclusive library, meaning that if a person has a public orange county library only, he/she may not able to borrow any materials from this library. Not only that, a person needs to be a Huntington Beach resident in order to open a library card.
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